Is it commen that the relatives of guerrillas killed during the civil
war in El Salvador target the families of policeman or military for
revenge?
My clients have have been attacked repeatedly in Apopa by relatives of
former guerrillas. Relatives (or their associates) even hunted them
down when they moved to another town (Ahuachapan) to escape. The
guerrilleros want revenge for human rights violations committed by
police & army against their relatives & comrades. Documents dated
SINCE THE SIGNING OF THE PEACE ACCORDS is 10 times better than
information from before.

Although there is a great deal of recent information on human rights
in El Salvador, I haven't seen very much information on the specific
topic you are asking about (however, I don't read Spanish, which
obviously limits me quite a bit).
I did come across this:
"In May [of 2002] a court exonerated former guerilla commander Raul
Granillo, also known as Commander Marcelo, of charges in the
kidnapings of Nelson Oswaldo Machuca Perez, Guillermo Alfredo Sol
Bang, Kerim Eduardo Salume Babum, Alberto Antonio Hill Dutriz, and
Andres Abraham Suster Castillejos between 1991 and 1995. The court
convicted Diego Flores, a lower ranking former guerilla, of kidnaping,
extortion, and possession of military weapons (charges stemming from
all five cases) and sentenced him to 102 years in prison. It found
Angela del Carmen Carrillo Palacios and Angela Carrillo Flores guilty
of complicity. In November, an appeals court revoked the ruling of the
lower court. The appeals court convicted Granillo in absentia of
kidnaping and extortion and sentenced him to 63 years in prison. It
convicted Carrillo Palacios and Carrillo Flores of kidnaping and
extortion and sentenced them to 42 years in prison. The appeals court
confirmed the lower court's exoneration of Oscar Armando Bernal
Martinez and Mauricio Ernesto Martinez Bernal."
Is this type of information helpful to you? What additional sorts of
information would you like to have? The more specific you can
describe your needs, the greater the likliehood that one of the
researchers here could find it for you.
Good luck.
pafalafa-ga

Upon further research, it is clear that there is a good deal of
activity (for want of a better word) associated with paramilitary and
vigilante-style groups of uncertain affiliation. Some of them may be,
broadly speaking, on the side of the military and police, while others
may be affiliated with those who see the military and police as their
former and current enemies.
Very few of the acts of violence have moved through the legal system
to the point where a culprit has been identified and found guilty of
the act.
One such case, highlighted in a United Nations document, notes the following case:
"...the person accused of the death of José Israel Mejía, an officer
of the National Civil Police of San Luis La Herradura, had been tried
and acquitted. It was also reported that, in the case of Joel de Jesús
Melgar, the person identified as responsible for his death does not
belong to any police force or to any other State agency."
In other words, a police officer was killed, and someone arrested for
the crime, but subsequently found not guilty of the charges. Whether
the killing was the type of revenge killing that your question targets
is difficult to say.
The report also notes that:
"According to information received, paramilitary groups and/or
clandestine groups similar to those which were active in the 1980s and
early 1990s, have appeared in recent years in El Salvador. These
groups, which are allegedly fomenting violence and social unrest in
the country, are said to be acting with the acquiescence of the
authorities, despite the fact that their links with the latter may not
be as clear as in the past."
==========
Again, please let me know if this is the type of information you are seeking.
Thank you.
pafalafa-ga

Clarification of Question by
deedub-ga
on
19 Jan 2004 13:36 PST

Sorry: Somehow I didn't realize that you had responded -- for which I thank you!
I doubt this sort of violence is common, as most human rights
violations were from the government side. Also, these days there is
plenty of common crime to keep people busy without needing to get
revenge on people who have no money to pay.
At the same time I feel confident that the story I've been given is
true. I don't need anything definitive, just *something* rather than
*nothing." Anything with "revenge" & "former military" or "former
guerrilla" would probably help. In this case the aggressors are now
connected to a gang (Mara 18, I believe), but for the most part they
are not asking for money, as in most gang-type cases. They keep
saying, ?Van a pagar lo que su perro de padre había hecho.? -- "you
will pay for the what your dog of a father had done.? (I understand
that 'dog' is a Salvadoran epithet for policeman). Thanks for working
on this; it could make a big difference to a nice family (FYI, the
former National Policeman, is dead, so it's just his widow and kids,
none of whom did anything bad to anyone).

Clarification of Question by
deedub-ga
on
19 Jan 2004 13:42 PST

Pafalafa-ga, thanks again for your work.
To answer your question directly, No, it's not exactly what I want --
though the second part is certainly good enough, so anything more
along those lines would be completely satisfactory. That is,
post-peace-accords killings or other persecution of families of former
military (which in el Salvador includes the National Police and
probably all other gov't representatives). It would be better if there
were SOMETHING to indicate that the killings were by people who had
some sort of anti-gov't. attitude -- families of former guerrillas
would be ideal. Right now, pretty much anything would help.

Hello again,deedub-ga,
Thank you for clarifying the type of information you are seeking...it
helps in searching through the available literature.
There is some information that pertains to the topic of revenge
against soldiers and police in El Salvador. I want to summarize it,
briefly, in this comment. It doesn't appear to me to me to fully meet
your needs, since it doesn't include specific cases of revenge for
human rights violations, but only talks in general terms about this
aspect of violence in the country.
However, if I am mistaken and this type of information does meet your
needs, please let me know, and I'll present a full account of the
information as an answer to your question.
And I hope things work out well for the family you are in touch with.
pafalafa-ga
==========
A report on children as soldiers notes that: "...children may also
have active reasons to want to fight. Like adults, they too may see
themselves fighting for social justice--as was often the case in
Central America or South Africa--or they may want to fight for their
religious beliefs or cultural identity. In more personal terms, they
may also be seeking revenge for the deaths of their parents, brothers
or sisters."
-----
A fairly recent, comprehensive report on violence in El Salvador noted:
--Military violence has now been replaced with social
violence. Generations of Salvadorans, raised in a
society at war with itself, have lost the ability to
coexist peacefully... such as guerrillas who took up weapons to
fight as children, have been trained only for warfare
and have been unwilling or unable to renounce
violence and live without guns.
This phenomenon of post-war violence has also
fostered the proliferation of ruthlessly criminal
maras (youth gangs), consisting of children and
adolescents whose lives and memories have been
shaped by conflict.
--73 percent of firearm owners said they bought a gun for protection.
Others said a gun allows them to "take justice into their own hands".
-----
[account of an incident in El Salvador in 1995]
...Many of those living there were rumored to be ex-guerrillas.
At four we left our property, which was in an
isolated area. Suddenly, six cheros (people) signaled
for my father to stop. We saw they already had
captured my uncle, who left just minutes before us.
Moving quickly, they pulled us out of the truck,
threw us face down and began to search the
vehicles, pointing their guns at us the entire time...
My father asked them why they were doing this.
They said it was revenge for the police raid days
earlier over the cattle thefts. They thought my
father reported them to the police...
-----
A survey of those in jail for violent crime noted:
--The survey among the prisoners sought to identify the reasons for
which the prisoners had committed the crimes...4.6% explained that
their motives for having committed the crime were personal feuds or
revenge. These motives seem to be mroe frequent among those accused of
homicide and among those responsible for causing bodily harm to other
people.
-----
A 1999 newspaper article reported:
--Three months ago, gunmen opened fire on a deputy police commissioner
in the province of San Vicente, killing her in a hail of bullets as
she left a restaurant after dinner with friends. Two weeks later, here
in the capital, an off-duty officer fell victim to an apparent gang
reprisal when he was fatally shot in the back five times while riding
a crowded bus home. In Usulutan province recently, three more officers
were killed by a group of men who attacked a festival using
semiautomatic weapons and homemade grenades.
==========
Like I said, none of these are precisely on target, so I have not
posted them as an answer. But I hope they will be of some use to you
nevertheless.
pafalafa-ga

There is also a brief reference in one report to "mordidos" in gangs
throughout El Salvador:
"The term ?mordido? [?bitten?] in this sense means that the person is
resentful and waiting to take revenge."

Clarification of Question by
deedub-ga
on
28 Jan 2004 12:32 PST

Hi Pafalafa,
Thanks for your further research. I?ve been out sick, and unable to
respond for awhile; sorry.
The first few articles I have already, specifically:
==========
A report on children as soldiers ?
-----
A fairly recent, comprehensive report on violence in El Salvador noted:
--Military violence has now been replaced with social violence. ...
-----
[account of an incident in El Salvador in 1995] ...Many of those
living there were rumored to be ex-guerrillas. At four we left our
property, ...
________
DW: However, I hadn?t run across the next one, which might be helpful
(or articles like it):
A survey of those in jail for violent crime noted:
--The survey among the prisoners sought to identify the reasons for
which the prisoners had committed the crimes...4.6% explained that
their motives for having committed the crime were personal feuds or
revenge. These motives seem to be mroe frequent among those accused of
homicide and among those responsible for causing bodily harm to other
people.
-----
DW: This one also might help a bit:
There is also a brief reference in one report to "mordidos" in gangs
throughout El Salvador:
"The term ?mordido? [?bitten?] in this sense means that the person is
resentful and waiting to take revenge."
==========
DW: This next one is the sort of article I found a lot of, but they
mostly point to gang violence, ?delincuencia común? or common crime,
as opposed to the sort of targeted violence I am trying to show. At
the same time, the violence in El Salvador (and Guatemala too, I
guess) seems to be a continuation of the social polarization from the
civil war, with the families on the side of the police and military
still hating those associated with the guerrillas. I sense that these
articles, if any of them had any depth, would be helpful. Not much of
a clarification, I?m afraid?
A 1999 newspaper article reported:
--Three months ago, gunmen opened fire on a deputy police commissioner
in the province of San Vicente, killing her in a hail of bullets as
she left a restaurant after dinner with friends. Two weeks later, here
in the capital, an off-duty officer fell victim to an apparent gang
reprisal when he was fatally shot in the back five times while riding
a crowded bus home. In Usulutan province recently, three more officers
were killed by a group of men who attacked a festival using
semiautomatic weapons and homemade grenades.

Hello again,
I wanted to get back to you with the information I have, so that you
could explore it further, if you wish.
It doesn't fully answer your question, so I am posting it here as a
clarification, rather than as an answer. If you see anything here,
though, that you would like me dig into a bit deeper, just let me
know, and I'm happy to continue researching this topic.
pafalafa-ga
==========
http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/2csoldrs.htm
Children as soldiers
"...children may also have active reasons to want to fight. Like
adults, they too may see themselves fighting for social justice--as
was often the case in Central America or South Africa--or they may
want to fight for their religious beliefs or cultural identity. In
more personal terms, they may also be seeking revenge for the deaths
of their parents, brothers or sisters."
==========
http://www.wvi.org/imagine/pdf/Salvador%20-%20final.pdf
Post-war violence
Military violence has now been replaced with social
violence. Generations of Salvadorans, raised in a
society at war with itself, have lost the ability to
coexist peacefully. Surrounded by violence as a way
of life, many have grown up never knowing peace.
Others, such as guerrillas who took up weapons to
fight as children, have been trained only for warfare
and have been unwilling or unable to renounce
violence and live without guns.
This phenomenon of post-war violence has also
fostered the proliferation of ruthlessly criminal
maras (youth gangs), consisting of children and
adolescents whose lives and memories have been
shaped by conflict.
-----
...73 percent of firearm owners said
they bought a gun for protection. Others said a gun
allows them to ?take justice into their own hands.?3
The government?s failure to provide effective public
protection is cited as another main reason.
-----
[account of an incident in 1995]
...Many of those living there were rumored to be ex-guerrillas.
At four we left our property, which was in an
isolated area. Suddenly, six cheros (people) signaled
for my father to stop. We saw they already had
captured my uncle, who left just minutes before us.
Moving quickly, they pulled us out of the truck,
threw us face down and began to search the
vehicles, pointing their guns at us the entire time...
My father asked them why they were doing this.
They said it was revenge for the police raid days
earlier over the cattle thefts. They thought my
father reported them to the police...
==========
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/LAC/LACInfoClient.nsf/0/347220f21704a74285256880007d2bcc/$FILE/englishreport.pdf
THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH VIOLENT CRIME IN EL SALVADOR
November 1999
The survey among the prisoners sought to identify the reasons for
which the prisoners had committed the crimes...4.6% explained that
their motives for having committed the crime were personal feuds or
revenge. These motives seem to e mroe frequent among those accused of
homicide and among those responsible for causing bodily harm to other
people.
==========
Violence Targets Salvadoran Police; Civilian Force Created at End of
Country's Civil War Suffers Mounting Losses
Washington Post Jun 10, 1999
Three months ago, gunmen opened fire on a deputy police commissioner
in the province of San Vicente, killing her in a hail of bullets as
she left a restaurant after dinner with friends. Two weeks later, here
in the capital, an off-duty officer fell victim to an apparent gang
reprisal when he was fatally shot in the back five times while riding
a crowded bus home. In Usulutan province recently, three more officers
were killed by a group of men who attacked a festival using
semiautomatic weapons and homemade grenades.
Six years after a new national police force emerged from the ruins of
El Salvador's long civil war, its members are being killed and wounded
at one of the highest rates of any law enforcement agency in the
world. The mounting toll offers graphic proof of the violence that
permeates Salvadoran society seven years after the accords that ended
the 12-year conflict.
==========
http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/asylum/ric/qa_pdfs/QASLV00-001.pdf
EL SALVADOR HARDSHIP CONSIDERATIONS
Since the mid-1990s, more Salvadorans have died annually due to violence than
during the war.52 At the same time, members of the poorly trained
police force have been killed and wounded at one of the highest rates
of any law enforcement agency in the world. In 1998, 115 Salvadoran
police officers were killed in the line of duty, compared with 156
federal, state and local law enforcement officers in all of the United
States, whose population is more than 45 times greater than El
Salvador?s...
Internecine warfare between youth gangs adds to the overall insecurity.
Throughout the country, there are at least 10,000 and possibly three
times that many mostly teenage gang members, the majority of whom
belong to pproximately 400 subdivisions of two major gangs founded
originally in Los Angeles. The largest is the Mara Salvatrucha (MS),
while the other is Calle 18, named for a street in East Los Angeles.
Violent turf battles between sub-groups of the two are frequent,
members are often armed with guns and even grenades, and many are
involved in criminal activities such as drug-dealing, robbery and
extortion.
According to a 1997 study cited by the Miami Herald, nearly one in three
Salvadorans reported being assaulted or robbed within the previous
four months. In an opinion poll by San Salvador?s Central American
University (UCA) published in January 1999, crime was the primary
concern of 44 percent of those surveyed. A study by FUSADES published
in February 1999 found that a majority of Salvadorans surveyed felt
less safe than during the war.
==========
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/sdvext.nsf/67ByDocName/ElSalvadorCaseStudyTheDemobilizationandReintegrationofChildSoldiers/$FILE/elsalvadorcasefinalwannex.pdf
?There are several boys who are involved in criminal activity because
they have some kind of firearm.?
?The majority of delinquents were relieved from duty because they are mordidos.?
"The term ?mordido? [?bitten?] in this sense means that the person is
resentful and waiting to take revenge."
==========
As you and I have both noted in earlier comments, these reports focus
a good deal on criminal violence, with only tangential references to
the type of revenge violence you specifically asked about. If I learn
any more about this topic, I will certainly post an updated note here.
All the best.
pafalafa-ga

Answer

There is no answer at this time.

Comments

Subject:
Re: El Salvador: revenge by former guerrillas against former police TIME OF ESSENCE!
From:
gitana-ga
on
15 Jan 2004 23:10 PST

Hi deedub-ga,
I spent several hours searching the archives of Salvadoran newspapers
and could find no accounts of the type you mention. If this were a
common occurrence I would have expected "El Diario de Hoy" to publish
the news as that particular newspaper is quite anti-FMLN. I lived in
San Salvador and Santa Ana in 1999 conducting research on post-war
politics in El Salvador and never heard of any incidents of violence
against former guardia or police members. I do not doubt that it has
occurred but it has received no press that I could find.
I post this as a comment rather than an answer as I expect you are
hoping for an affirmative answer.
Regards,
gitana-ga

Subject:
Re: El Salvador: revenge by former guerrillas against former police TIME OF ESSENCE!
From:
recuerdo-ga
on
12 Aug 2004 20:46 PDT

Its really sad that nobody is lookin at the big picture and asking the
right questions,the real truth is that the wrong people are paying
with their lifes,for things they didn't do,the best example is Mr.
Diego Flores whom was sentenced to 102 years just to cover for somene
else that happens to have a better political back up,why don't you
check if he had a fair trial or a good lawyer trying to help him or as
the original question Was he convicted only for revenge....Is there
any justice in El Salvador^.

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